Remember cord cutting? Once upon a time, observers thought the rise of online video delivery would lead to mass cable and satellite TV cancellations.
Sure, more than 1.1 million households cut the cord last year, according to a new Convergence Consulting report. But consistent data is hard to find. Nielsen April estimates suggest a 1.7% decline in pay-TV households.
To Pivotal’s senior media analyst Brian Wieser, that looks more like “cord shaving”.
“Many investors have long foretold concerns around cord cutting. That was always both an incomplete and an incorrect argument,” he tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
“Consumers generally have expressed a need to retain their cord with the incumbent distributor.
“Most of the cable networks are seeing erosion that outpaces reduction in subscriber levels to cable services – we’re seeing the rise of the skinny bundle.
“The stickiest piece of the bundle is the broadband. Consumers are not giving that up. They are typically retaining the free-to-air broadcasts networks delivered over those systems. It reconcentrates viewing in the hands of the broadcast networks.”
We interviewed him in New York at the Simulmedia PeopleFront conference where he was a speaker. Please find more video interviews from the PeopleFront event right here.
